BUSINESS EXCELLENCE THROUGH STRATEGIC ENTREPRENEURSHIP: A STUDY OF ASPIRING MINDS

Prof. Anu Singh Lather Dean, University School of Management Studies, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi anusinghlather@gmail.com Dr. Shilpa Jain Assistant Professor, University School of Management Studies Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi shilpajain.usms@gmail.com

Abstract When an entrepreneur strives to establish a new business enterprise in todays fast paced business environment, he/ she often remains entangled in the tactical activities needed just to bring venture to life and keep it alive. In this pursuit they fail to implement conscious strategic management process required to create competitive advantage over the rivals. However if the entrepreneurs follow Strategic entrepreneurship (SE) which involves simultaneous opportunity-seeking and advantage-seeking behaviors, it results in business excellence and sustained competitive advantage. The present study applies Lehtonens (1999) model of strategic entrepreneurship to a recruitment company Aspiring Minds in an attempt to understand how they have gained business excellence and competitive advantage through strategic entrepreneurship by the right integration of customer interface, core strategy, strategic resources and value network. The company was among the top six finalists of NASSCOM awards for Innovative Business Models in 2009 and is spreading its wings pan india at a very fast pace. They are now serving even to IITs and is in news at many international platforms.

Keywords: Strategic Entrepreneurship, Customer Interface, Value Network, Core Strategy, Strategic Resources Introduction The late American congressman Daniel Moynihan once said, "The great corporations of this country were not founded by ordinary people. They were founded by people with extraordinary intelligence, ambition, and aggressiveness." However, these extraordinary people cannot lead their corporate creations forever. Only those have been successful who planned and moved strategically. Corporate entrepreneurship strategy or Strategic Entrepreneurship comes into play when a company needs to go in a new direction and continue to be successful. To define, strategic entrepreneurship are the plans and ideas implemented in order to make the company more innovative, creative, and profitable. If an organization moves with strategic entrepreneurship unique to its needs and abilities, it will reap the benefits. Positive results of corporate entrepreneurship strategy include higher profits, outperforming the competition and sustaining a leading edge in the firm's field. The business will experience other advantages as well. It will gain a reputation as an innovator, which will then attract focused employees committed to progress. The concept of strategic entrepreneurship is rather new to both academics and business practitioners (Ireland and Webb 2007; Hitt et al. 2002a) yet most academics state that strategic entrepreneurship helps a firm establish a competitive advantage (Ireland et al. 2003), which Porter (1998) suggests is critical if a firms aim is to achieve superior performance. Ireland and Webb (2007) mention that this competitive advantage will be a source of continuous innovation. Strategic entrepreneurship also allows firms to respond to significant environmental changes by effective positioning (Ireland and Webb 2007). Most literature on SE has to date focused on arguing a logical theoretical construct, integrating aspects from the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship based on the understanding that both fields are concerned with firm growth and wealth creation and hence are often mutually supportive (Ireland, Kuratko, and Covin 2003). While the fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship have developed largely independently of each other, they both are focused on how firms adapt to environmental

change and exploit opportunities created by uncertainties and discontinuities in the creation of wealth (Hitt and Ireland, 2000; Venkataraman and Sarasvathy, 2001). As such, several scholars have recently called for the integration of strategic and entrepreneurial thinking (e.g., McGrath and MacMillan, 2000). In fact, Meyer and Heppard (2000) argue that the two are really inseparable. McGrath and MacMillan (2000) argue that strategists must exploit an entrepreneurial mindset and, thus, have no choice but to embrace it to sense opportunities, mobilize resources, and act to exploit opportunities, especially under highly uncertain conditions. The fields of strategic management and entrepreneurship are becoming increasingly intertwined, in a reality where firms need to be able to manage continuous change and maintain flexibility in order to survive. Hence, the concept of Strategic Entrepreneurship (se) has seen the light of day, as a highly relevant topic. High failure rates are associated with new firms, with most survivors only achieving marginal performance (Darby 2002). It would hence be valuable for a firm to be able to identify performance and competitive advantage determinants before significant capital is expended in the business activities (Cooper et al. 1994). Here is where strategic entrepreneurship comes into the picture. The link to firm-level entrepreneurship and competitive advantage is straightforward: As environment change, so do competitive advantages. Given that future competitive advantages are highly uncertain, it may pay to keep develop and keep several options open. Internal corporate venturing is a means to such option-creation. When uncertainty resolves, the firm can then call the option most likely to lead to an advantage in the relevant environment. In an influential paper Hitt, Ireland, Camp and Sexton (2001) sought to define, legitimize and clarify the domain of strategic entrepreneurship. They argued that in order for firms to achieve sustained competitive advantage, they need to strategically leverage entrepreneurial wealth creation. Thus, firms strategic intent must be to continuously discover and exploit entrepreneurial opportunities, in order to continuously create competitive advantages that lead to maximum wealth creation (Hitt et al., 2002: 2). In this broad definition, strategic entrepreneurship

transcends hierarchical levels, applies to both small and large firms, and established firms as well as new ventures (Agarwal, Audretsch & Sarkar, 2010). Thus, strategic entrepreneurship is taken up with how firms strategic intent can facilitate continuously leveraging of entrepreneurial opportunities for advantage seeking purposes (Ireland, Hitt & Sirmon, 2003; Ireland et al., 2001). The Historical Roots of Strategic Entrepreneurship As mentioned by Hughes et al (2010) in their work on origin, core elements and research directions that while the fields of entrepreneurship and strategy have developed independently over the last three decades, several important developments have recently taken place which point towards a marriage of both perspectives. For example, studies in the area of strategic management, in particular, have gradually uncovered the relationship between strategic management and entrepreneurship: Mintzberg (1973) introduced the notion of entrepreneurial strategy making; Pinchot (1985) examined intrapreneurship; Covin and Slevin (1989) presented the concept of an entrepreneurial strategic posture within organizations; Lumpkin and Dess (1996) extended this concept introducing the entrepreneurial orientation construct, which they identify as the tendency of organizations to engage in innovative, risk-accepting and proactive strategies; Ireland et al. (2001) extend and broaden this concept to integrate strategic management as a context for entrepreneurial actions; and Foss et al. (2008) highlight the concept of subjectivism in order to reconcile entrepreneurship theory with strategic management and the resourcebased view (RBV). As described by Hughes et al (2010), in defining entrepreneurship, Shane and Venkataraman (2000, p. 218) emphasize that it is a nexus that involves entrepreneurial individuals seizing and exploiting lucrative opportunities: the field involves the study of sources of opportunities; the processes of discovery, evaluation, and exploitation of opportunities; and the set of individuals who discover, evaluate, and exploit them. In the initial stages of venture creation and launch, entrepreneurs often have to do more with less and use what abilities and resources they have at their disposal with a minimum of capital and a maximum of ingenuity and improvisation (Harrison et al., 2004; Miner et al., 2001). Established mid-to-large firms however face very different conditions.

Although their resource base is evidently greater, their entrepreneurial capacity for innovativeness and risk-taking are constrained by structures, systems and processes setup over time to formalize their operations towards achieving efficiency and effectiveness (Mintzberg, 1979). Still, established and larger sized firms do have considerably greater knowledge and competence at creating, shaping and deploying competitive advantages but nevertheless, there exists an entrepreneurial imperative for firms to innovate and adapt rapidly to change or face obsolescence and failure (Hitt et al., 2001; Merrifield, 1993). Strategy is often likened to a process of planning that places emphasis on improved decision making brought about by managing resources within a framework of structures, systems and processes (Huges et al, 2010). Strategy is considered a primary advantage that differentiates entrepreneurial firms and creates organizational excellence (Darling et al., 2007). It provides the context within which firms can exploit identified opportunities, that is, through their current strategic platform and through structured, well-planned actions, thereby aiding firms to specialize and gain competitive advantage. Entrepreneurial firms risk focusing excessively on opportunity recognition and risktaking activities; lacking a balanced strategic focus can then undermine the benefits and value their entrepreneurial initiatives might generate. As such, they become incapable of gaining the advantages that their propensity towards entrepreneurial behaviour has to offer. Still, the excessive formalization of firm organizing activity that strategy entails, can create conditions that restrict rapid adaptation to change and tolerance of framebreaking ideas (DeSimone et al., 1995), which in turn might prevent the firm from capturing the benefits that its entrepreneurial behaviour could create. Balancing entrepreneurship and strategic management then can help firms avoid the Strategic entrepreneurship trap of excessive risk-taking activities while preventing inertia caused by iteratively adding to present advantages. Further Hughes et al (2010) discusses that the strategic management theory, epitomized by the RBV, emphasizes the creation of a unique resource position for the firm to create advantages that allow it to compete effectively into the long term (Barney, 1991; Wernerfelt, 1984). However, this perspective does not adequately explain long-term success when firms face volatile and environmental conditions. Indeed, advantage is at

best temporary such that a firm must continuously explore new opportunities over and above merely exploiting its resource advantages over other firms (Leonard-Barton, 1992). It is this very weakness that explains why small firms and new entrants can out maneuver larger market incumbents. Owing to their emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurial out maneuvering, entrepreneurial ventures regardless of size are characterized by high degrees of uncertainty and so their managers must simultaneously maximize their ability to recognize and pursue new business opportunities while minimizing the strategic risk related to venture development by improving the formation, management and leverage of temporary competitive advantages (Ireland et al., 2001). This problem can be viewed as one of creating and sustaining SE. Building Blocks of Strategic Entrepreneurship The founding works of SE, as well as recent bibliometric research, show that SE crystallizes the mutual support and interdependence that exists between entrepreneurship and strategic management (Hitt et al., 2002). The emergence of SE has its roots in the field of economics (Knight, 1921; Schumpeter, 1942) and later in the field of management. Several studies have uncovered the relationship between strategic management and entrepreneurship. Covin and Slevin (1989), following Millers (1983) conception of an entrepreneurial firm, define strategic posture as a firms competitive orientation on a spectrum from conservative to entrepreneurial. Lumpkin and Dess (1996) subsequently developed the construct of entrepreneurial orientation. Ireland et al. (2001) viewed strategic management as a context for entrepreneurial actions. Meyer and Heppard (2000) discussed the notion of entrepreneurial strategy. Barringer and Bluedorn (1999) examine the relationship between entrepreneurship intensity and five specific strategic management practices and conclude that scanning intensity, planning flexibility, locus of planning and strategic controls positively influence entrepreneurial intensity. Therefore, the relationship between strategic management and entrepreneurial activity has emerged in an interrelated way over many years but has only now been crystallized into a construct of practice. Penrose (1959) contributed the RBV of the firm, focusing on resource heterogeneity as the primary source of competitive advantage. Although it is a dominant framework in

strategic management, entrepreneurship scholars use it to analyze the resource characteristics, resource combinations and dynamic capabilities that drive entrepreneurial acts (Foss et al., 2008). From the above discussion, SE can be defined as a process that facilitates firm efforts to identify opportunities with the highest potential to lead to value creation, through the entrepreneurial component and then to exploit them through measured strategic actions, based on their resource base. The entrepreneurial aspect contributes to the ability of identifying opportunities and to the willingness of firms to pursue new opportunities, whilst the strategic perspective enables them to isolate and exploit those opportunities most likely to lead to sustainable competitive advantage and subsequent means by which to form advantage (Hitt et al., 2001). TABLE 1: Key Contributions to Strategic Entrepreneurship (Source: Nicolai J. Foss and Jacob Lyngsie, 2011)
Contribution Dependent var. Covin and Slevin, 1989 Firm performance Independent var. Organizational structure, environmental hostility, entrepreneurial strategic posture Level of analysis Firmlevel Contingency perspective, where optimal practices organizational design is dependent on the competitive environment. Dess, Lumpkin & Covin, 1997 Firm performance Entrepreneuria l strategy making, strategy and environmental conditions Firm level The match between an firm strategy and varying environmental conditions affects firms entrepreneurial strategy making. firm and An organic organizational structure entrepreneurial strategic posture have a positive effect on firm performance hostility environment. Entrepreneurial making positive combined appropriate and condition. has effect with firm a strategy stronger on both firm when an strategy in high competitive and an Key argument Key Findings

performance

environmental

Barringer & Bluedorn, 1999

Corporate entrepreneursh ip (EO)

Scanning intensity, Planning flexibility, Planning horizon, Locus of planning

Firm level

Empirical test of the relationship between firms entrepreneurial intensity and strategic management practices

Scanning intensity, planning flexibility planning intensity. affect intensity. and all locus of positively However, entrepreneurial

affect firms entrepreneurial Planning horizon does not

Ireland et al., 2003

Wealth creation

Entrepreneuria l mindset, culture, leadership, resource management, creativity and innovation

Firm and Individual level

Firms pursuing either an opportunity or advantage seeking

The authors constructs a SE model defining four key dimensions and delineating directs and indirect effect between these and wealth creation

strategy are unlikely to be able to achieve sustained competitive advantage. opportunity Hence, and firms must be both advantage seeking. Strategic leverage of entrepreneurial opportunities requires firms to be proentrepreneurial in all dimensions.

Ketchen, Ireland & Snow, 2007

Wealth creation

Collaboration & innovation

Firm level

Large and small firms differ on terms of operational effectiveness. at Large firms are more skilled establishing competitive advantages. On the other hand, small firms have stronger opportunityseeking skills.

Building on network, learning, resource based, and real option theories the authors argue that collaboration between small and large firms may enable integration of advantage and opportunityseeking abilities boundaries. across firm

Kuratko and Audretsch, 2009

n.a.

n.a.

Firm and Individual level

Essentially authors of with entrepreneurship.

the

The authors points to numerous avenues for future enhancement and development of strategic entrepreneurship at the intersection of strategic management and entrepreneurship research. Strategic entrepreneurship negatively affects role ambiguity and employees intention to quit. Also employees and managers react differently to strategic entrepreneurship. Firstly, purposes a model of interlinkages environment, entrepreneurial and cognitions organizational between

recapitulate integrating

the dominant logics strategic management

Monsen & Boss, 2009

Job stress & employee retention

Risktaking, innovativeness & proactiveness

Individual level

Empirical examination of the intrafirm effect of strategic entrepreneurship on employees

Hitt & Ireland, 2009

Competition capability & strategic repositioning

Environmental conditions, individual entrepreneurial cognitions & organizational architecture

Multi level

Construction detailed placing entrepreneurial

of

model firms

strategic vision at the interlink of the reciprocal effects of environmental conditions, entrepreneurial cognition organizational and

architecture. Second, points to numerous avenues for future empirical research.

Anderson, Covin & Slevin, 2009

Strategic learning capability

Entrepreneuria l orientation, structural organicity, market

Firm level

architecture. EO positively affects firms learning is strategic capability. by

Finds a positive, relationship between entrepreneurial knowledge change. and behavior strategic that this and generation of strategic Also

Also this relationship mediated structure, market

responsiveness and strategy formation mode Ahuja & Lampert, 2001 Breakthrough inventions Novel technologies, emerging technologies, pioneering technologies Firm level

responsiveness strategy mode.

and

relationship mediated organicity, by

is

fully structural market

formation

responsiveness, and strategy The maturity propinquity traps inhibit established firms in developing breakthrough inventions. familiarity, and formation mode. Firms may overcome the negative effect of the familiarity, maturity and propinquity traps by enacting entrepreneurial strategies focused on novel, emerging or pioneering technologies.

Srategic Entrepreneurship and Financial Benefits The association between the entrepreneurship and financial or economic benefit is widely accepted in the litreature (Ireland et al., 2001; Schumpter, 1934). There is a clear association between entrepreneurship and surplus or profit. The strategic entrepreneurship activity suggests the potential of benefits to be more recurring rather than one-off or scatterd profits (Venkataraman & Sarasvathy, 2001). However not all research concludes that entrepreneurial process leads to financial benefits (Dess, Lumpkin, & Covin, 1997; Verreynne & Meyer, 2007). Mintzberg (1991) and Venkataraman and Sarasvathy (2001) highlight the importance of ongoing task of managing activities such as entrepreneurial ventures to realise and sustain successful performance and financial reward. It is also argued that while the financial benefits of strategic entrepreneurship may be a reflection of degree and frequency (Morris & Sexton, 1996), these forces alone are unlikely to determine the associated financial implications and ultimate financial outcomes. Rather, once strategic entrepreneurship is established or created, it must be managed effectively within the organization, and within the context of an external environment which contunues to change.

A study was conduted by Luke et al (2010) on 12 of the 17 state-owned enterprises operating in New Zealand in 2006. They identified the strategic entrepreneurship activities taken up by these firms and clearly exhibited the elements of innovation, opportunity identification and growth directly leveraged from the firms core skills and resources. The examination of the strategic entrepreneurial activities after one year revealed that these activities has progressed, grown and in some cases resulted in additional (spin-off) projects. Also almost eighty percent strategic entrepreneurial activities realized financial gains by the mid of the year, more importantly indicated towards recurring and additional returns from strategic entrepreneurial activities. Rationale of the Present Study Strategic Entrepreneurship is a relatively new concept which has been explored theoretically but sereiously lack evidences of application and empirical investigations. The present study is an attempt to elaborate on this concept of strategic entrepreneurship thorough Lehtonens Model of Strategic Entrepreneurship on a recruitment services providing organization Aspirng Minds. This organization has gained competitive advanatge over competitors and is expanding exponentially through strategic entrepreneurial practices. Methodology The study will explain the Lehtonens Model along with with its applicative analysis on the organization under consideration. A Brief About Aspiring Minds Birth of an idea: While pursuing electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, Varun Aggarwal read disturbing statistics (2003 NASSCOM-KPMG report) about India: Even though 350,000 engineers graduated annually from more than 300 universities and 15,600 colleges, only 25 percent were considered employable. A massive shortfall of technical personnel was expected by 2012. The report blamed poor training, but he remained skeptical.

Whereas, everyone was talking about unemployability and training as the issue, his mind was working on how to solve the problem of making the right talent meet opportunity. This led to the germination of an ingenious, satisfying the needful and simple idea of conducting a SAT/GRE like assessment exam. Varun and his brother Himanshu , an IIT graduate, left their mouth watering packages to build their company Aspiring minds which now has a wide pool of customers ranging from students to companies. Brief Description Aspiring Minds is a pioneer in the space of Scientific Assessments, Talent Benchmarking and scalable acquisition of talent. Their state of the art assessment tools have been used across industry verticals to help recruit the right people, develop profile-wise employability benchmarks and assess workforce health. Aspiring Minds intelligent adaptive assessments span across Language, Cognitive skills, Domain knowledge and Personality. A strong in-house research and development team with alumni from IITs and MIT form the development back bone of thier patent pending assessment tools. While their recruitment solutions help eliminate biases and subjectivity in hiring decisions, their talent benchmarking efforts have helped unravel key skills required for success in particular roles and our innovative sourcing has helped large corporate recruit 1000s efficiently. Graduating students can take Aspiring Minds flagship test AMCAT (Aspiring Minds Computer Adaptive Test ), to present a picture of their abilities and skills to interested companies. Students would also get feedback and a reality-check on their abilities and job-preparedness on the basis this assessment. Aspiring Minds has proved itself as highly valuable to the corporate by providing just the right kind of talent to them based on scientific and objective judgment. A large database of students assessed across the nation is now being used by companies to identify and pick the talent from literally anywhere and at any time. Companies can directly hire from this database or use Aspiring Minds assessment services independent of the pool. Aspiring Minds has aptitude, skill and personality tests, which are all computer-based and completely automated. They also work with companies to setup hiring benchmarks through correlating test scores to internal company performance criteria. Personality assessment has been particularly useful with regard to hiring sales, retail and customer relationship profile.

Aspiring Minds team goes college-to-college to conduct the test in the computer lab of the college to bring job opportunities to the door step of the student. In just over three years, more than 130,000 students from more than 550 colleges have taken the AMCAT. And test data have yielded some important findings. More than 70 percent of qualified candidates for IT jobs graduate from institutions many employers ignore. Aspiring Minds has augmented scientific assessment with an innovative large-scale sourcing model analogous to a GRE-for-job concept. AMCAT - their flagship product is Indias Largest Employability Test. Tens of thousands of candidates secure their dream jobs every year through AMCAT. Their dedicated management from IITs and IIMs, more than 110 full-time employees, and a pan-India operational presence has helped leading corporations across industry verticals improve their recruitment process efficiency and the quality of talent being acquired. Today more than 60 companies including the hotshots such as Microsoft and HCL and elite institutes like the IITs and NITs resort to their tests. Perhaps a great way of aiding people with diverse backgrounds is that different courses have different tests (different AMCATS) and companies look at different combination of these scores. Aspiring Minds products and solutions have been adopted by leading corporate including HCL, Genpact, iGate, Patni, Mphasis, Ericsson, Sapient, John Deere, Tavant, Tally, among others. Analyzing Strategic Entrepreneurship at Aspiring Minds using Lehtonens Model The Lehtonens Model emphasize how the business excellence can be achieved through strategic entrepreneurship. The model elaborates that the first thing required to focus is on unpacking the business concept. This can be done through four major components: 1. Core Strategy 2. Strategic Resources 3. Value Network 4. Cutomer Interface

1. CORE STRATEGY explains the essence of how the firm chooses to compete. The major elements of Core Strategy are: 1.1 The Business Mission: what the business concept is designed to accomplish or deliver. Aspiring Minds vision is to bring credible and genuine assessment to various aspects of education, training and employment. Aspiring Minds strives to help institutions and companies from choosing the right individual rather than the best individual.

Aspiring minds came with the concept that when a fresh candidate moves to the business world. At the end of the day his success is not governed by his academic achievement but by his comprehensive aptitude and attitude. They offered a platform to students where despite their average scores in academics, they can still look forward to get good jobs through taking their employability test AMCAT which is developed in consultation of the industry experts as to what do they require in a candidate. 1.2 Product / Market Scope: where the firm competes (which customers, which geographies, what product segments) and where, by implication it does not compete. When most of the recruitment companies were focusing on providing placements to management postgraduates, Aspiring Minds targeted the IT postgraduates. They spread their wings beyond single state in the entire north India and tapped all the colleges teaching MCA big or small. They did not initially go in to employing MBAs for what we analyze as two reasons. One that testing MBAs requires more legwork in terms of different specialization. Two, it is equally a cumbersome job to tap the organizations to get them placed according to specialization. 1.3 Basis for Differentiation: how the firm competes differently from its competitors.

Aspiring Minds under the strategic leadership of its founders Mr. Himanshu Agarwal (educated form IIT Delhi) and Mr. Varun Agarwal (educated from MIT USA) chose MCA placement as its core area and secondly they developed a recruitment test developed with the help of the industry expert, accepted by industry. The test results include a comprehensive report on the strengths and weakness of the candidate in different skills area and also how they can enhance their strengths and improve on their weakness. The major benefit to the students is that they can improve their score after three months to enhance their employability, which leads to increased chances of being short listed by organizations. Aspiring Minds has aptitude, skill and personality tests, which are all computer-based and completely automated. They also work with companies to setup hiring benchmarks through correlating test scores to internal company performance criteria. Personality assessment has been particularly useful with regard to hiring sales, retail and customer relationship profile. Aspiring Minds team goes college-to-college to conduct the test in the computer lab of the college to bring job opportunities to the door step of the student. In just over three years, more than 130,000 students from more than 550 colleges have taken the AMCAT. And test data have yielded some important findings. More than 70 percent of qualified candidates for IT jobs graduate from institutions many employers ignore. Aspiring Minds has proved itself as highly valuable to the corporate by providing just the right kind of talent to them based on scientific and objective judgment. A large database of students assessed across the nation is now being used by companies to identify and pick the talent from literally anywhere and at any time. Companies can directly hire from this database or use Aspiring Minds assessment services independent of the pool. 2. STRATEGIC RESOURCES: The unique firm-specific resources: 2.1 Core Competencies: The skills and unique capabilities of the firm that are valuable to customers and transferable to new opportunities. The core competency of Aspiring Minds is its highly competitive test based on industry requirement, comprehensive reports with suggestions for improvement and most importantly a hope of getting good placement to those students who possess good

knowledge but lacks on academic scores. Moreover this concept also places the students from colleges of different repute on a single platform to prove their worth. This was a concept which was entirely unique as a recruitment solutions organization. This served as a unique selling point for the organization and gained them huge clientele from academics and industry both. The services provided by Aspiring Minds are their core competencies. Some of them are mentioned below Adaptive Assessment Technology Aspiring Minds proprietary assessment platform provides high-end statistical assessment based on the Item Response Theory (IRT). IRT is a global standard used for construction of high-stake tests such as university admission exams, medical and accountancy certifications, etc. Aspiring Minds platforms brings for the first time in India, Computer Adaptive Tests with dynamic content providing accurate skill measurement. All our assessments are powered by our robust Adaptive Testing engine which does a multi-dimensional assessment of the candidate abilities using advanced statistical and AI algorithms. The assessment platform is capable of automated content (phase in and out of questions) and test delivery management ensuring complete end-to-end integration of assessments and content. The test reliability and precision, its content validity, leak-proof and guess check algorithms ensure that assessments are comparable and precise. Aptitude and Skill Assessment: Computer Adaptive Testing Aspiring Minds is the first to introduce Computer Adaptive Testing for employability in India.

Scientifically constructed modules provide high value for recruitment, promotion and diagnosis purposes Modules range from Aptitude, Skill/Knowledge and Personality Testing The Assessment engine works on large statistically rated question bank Proprietary algorithms for leak-control, automatic guess correction and correction for prior question knowledge maintain integrity

All candidates see a different question set The modules have high test validity correlated with on-job performance and high interview-convert rates

Aspiring Minds has a bouquet of assessment products relevant to variety of roles in an organization. A subset of modules may be chosen depending on the candidate/employee profile being accessed. Some of the Computer Adaptive Modules include English and Comprehension, Logical Ability, Quantitative Skills (Non-Technical), Quantitative Skills (Technical), Financial Services, Computer Programming Principles and Algorithms, Computer Literacy, Electronics and Semiconductor, and IT Infrastructure (BETA) etc. AMPI: Aspiring Minds Personality Inventory Aspiring Minds Personality Inventory (AMPI) is the first statistically validated personality inventory designed for personality analysis of Indians for providing inputs for selection in corporates. AMPI is based on the five-factor model, which is by far the only scientifically validated and reliable personality model for job selection.

A 15 minute inventory, AMPI is probably the quickest way to get feedback on a job applicant with regard to his/her suitability for a job. A detailed instantaneous report generated for the candidate gives the hiring manager a quick objective map of the personality of the candidate. AMPI items have gone through extensive statistical validation to discern the items that load on different trait scales. Entire statistical exercise is based on sampling of items on more than 13000 entrylevel jobapplicants. AMPI is the only instrument which has been

validated with multiple sales and hospitality sector corporates in India. Certain traits of AMPI show strong correlation with job performance in these sectors and can help improve workforce performance by 25% to 40%. AMPI is currently available in English, Hindi and Telugu. Tailored Assessment Modules Aspiring Minds in-house assessment and content team help realizing assessment needs with custom-made modules. Aspiring Minds scalable assessment engine and deep insight into statistical assessments helps build assessment tools with standardization, reliability and validity and conforming to international standards. Delivery and Scale Credible assessment combined with superior delivery options makes assessment reach the nooks and corners of your business. Aspiring Minds offers a complete spectrum of delivery options like Online Delivery over the Internet, Offline (non-Internet) Delivery, Campus / Event Delivery Services, and Client Server Delivery. Recruitment Solutions Aspiring Minds One Click National Sourcing is powered by AMCAT. AMCAT Indias Largest Employability Assessment is conducted across the country. In this exercise 1000s of candidates in Engineering, MBA and other Graduate schools are assessed on a battery of computer based assessments. This assessed pool of candidates is than shared with corporate clients to help them hire pan India is a very scalable and cost effective manner. Campus Assessments Solutions from Aspiring Minds are endtoend engagements where our scientific assessments are used to help select high quality candidates on campus across the country. Aspiring Minds Assessments can be deployed for walkin assessments to ensure a quality consistent process and reduce possibilities of bad hires. These assessments are delivered over the Internet at your office or anywhere across the country. Talent Benchmarking helps you know your Right.

Campus Assessment & Recruitment Aspiring Minds Assessment Team is capable of providing Assessment Solutions on campus for any specific corporate needs. The team ensures smooth delivery of computer based assessment in the most hostile environments while automated result generation, and shortlisting tools ensure accurate and speedy selection. Aspiring Minds Account Managers work closely with corporates to map their needs to various assessment parameters and help pick the right set of people to interview. Companies have seen their interview to hire convert rates shoot up dramatically (two to six fold increase) on using AMCAT as a shortlisting criteria. Aspiring Minds has detailed knowledge of campuses, courses and their talent quality to be able to plan campus hiring with precision. Aspiring Minds can also dramatically increase reach to current campus program by augmenting it with the preassessed pools created using AMCAT. This will add filtered and shortlisted candidates to be interviewed in tandem with the campus recruitment drives conducted. This can multiply campus reach tenfold without any increase in costs. Talent Map/ Skill Gap Analysis It is done through a completely objective set of tools including assessments, 360 degree feedback, performance data and mathematical models. Talent Maps power lies in being able to control the quality of intake by hiring candidates similar to the top-performers at your organization in a scalable, objective and consistent matter. Promotion Related Feedback Aspiring Minds AMPro gives an objective measure of the candidates cognitive skills and personality to the decisionmaker. AMPro also builds in parameters for specific skills that are needed for a role and makes recommendations on the basis of the same.

AMPro aims to add value to the promotion process and add to the inputs the decision makers already have. The objectivity of the new inputs make them consistent pan organization across geographies. Finally AMPro combines all the data together that of the target achievement, manager feedback and objective skill and personality of the candidate to provide an wholesome picture for the decision maker. Using such comprehensive analysis, the chances of wrong promotions are eliminated to nil. Educational Institution Entrance Exam Educational Institutions across the world look to choose the students they would like to take through their system. Getting the right student into the institution today is as critical as provide the right education. A mismatched set of students are unable to cope up with professional standards, leading to deficiencies in the Institutions academic performance and collapse in reputation. Aspiring Minds Performance Analytics helps improving candidate intake year after year and by correctly predicting performance of each incoming candidate. Aspiring Minds Educational Institution Solution combines the Aspiring Minds Assessment Framework (AMAF), the Aspiring Minds Assessment Delivery Application (AMADA) with academic filtering criteria developed over time and partner delivery solutions to provide a complete solution to automate Entrance Examinations. 2.2 Strategic Assets: The rare and valuable things that the firm owns, including e.g. brands and customer data. Aspiring Minds within a short span of time have gained the institutional clientele amongst others like IITs and recruitment services to entire IGNOU University. This is a fete difficult to achieve yet, they have. Amongst the industry clients they have big names in IT industry like HCL, Genpact, iGate, Patni, Mphasis, Ericsson, Sapient, John Deere, Tavant, Tally, among others who are using their test results to short list candidates from different colleges. 2.3 Core Processes: Methodologies and Routines used in the firm. Aspiring Minds follow a painstaking strategy of first testing the product on the ground, learning from the experience and then designing a product sturdy in all scenarios. Only

when sure about the products potential do they go into marketing it in a sustainable way. They were very averse to over-exposure of their products too early in the cycle. Their marketing strategy has always been to first make people understand products core value proposition, get endorsements from thought leaders and then create a mass appeal through activities such as sponsoring HR seminars, events, organizing placement seminars, etc. Aspiring Minds R&D team comprises two sets of people. The first set works on the assessment technology, in the statistics and analytics division of the company that consists of engineering and statistics experts. This division is led by Varun Aggarwal. The second set works on the product delivery technology. This team comprises of engineers who ensure smooth and efficient delivery of assessment products across the remotest corners of the country. Over 35 per cent of the total spending is on R&D. There is social value in finding a job for someone who doesnt have one; it brings stability to the person, his family and eventually to society. Aspiring Minds is the change agent in giving that value. Focusing on these ideals the young entrepreneurs braved the recession and Aspiring Minds emerged stronger and unscathed. 3. CUSTOMER INTERFACE 3.1 Fulfillment & Support: How the firm actually goes to market, how it actually reaches its customers which channels it uses, what kind of customer support it offers and what level of service it provides. Aspiring Minds moved very strategically in the market by differentiating in their services through providing individual focus on each and every test taker. This gave a sense of satisfaction to the institutions and students also that whatever amount they are paying for AMCAT is worth every penny. On the other side it built trust of organizations in them that they will get good candidates with insight in their skills, strengths and weaknesses. Moreover they provide updates on all their activities to their clients and engage in the activities of knowledge and value enhancement. They conduct researches and bring down the snapshots of various researches, which could be of interest to both academicians and industry.

3.2 Information & Insight: The information content of the customer interface (all the knowledge that is collected from and utilized on behalf of customers) and the ability of a company to extract insights from this information. Aspiring Minds has rightfully utilized the information they have gathered from their customers and by applying their insight they have identified a major concern of the academic institutions of getting the right set of students. A mismatched set of students are unable to cope up with professional standards, leading to deficiencies in the Institutions academic performance and collapse in reputation. The unspoken truth is that most institutions do not follow a scientific process of assessment at intake. Aspiring Minds came up with another tool to provide solution to this issue in the form of Assessment for Education. Aspiring Minds Performance Analytics helps improving candidate intake year after year and by correctly predicting performance of each incoming candidate. 3.3 Relationship Dynamics: The nature of the interaction between the producer and the customer, including both emotional and transactional elements. The company is always welcome with the ideas and the top management is so down to earth that they can be approached anytime. 3.4 Pricing Structure: What the company charges for. The company charges only four hundred rupees per candidate for all gamuts of their services individually, however for entire campus process, it is even less than this. Even they at times conduct it for free to have a look and feel of their product in order to build new clients. 4. VALUE NETWORK: Complements and amplifies the firms own resources The bouquet of services provided by the organization in itself complements and amplifies their resources. They started with providing recruitment solutions for IT professionals. Gradually started services for MBAs too, now they have expanded themselves beyond all boundaries to provide recruitment solutions even for the simple graduates and post graduates too. This is an idea, which no other recruitment services providing organization has ever thought of offering. The organization has even moved a step further by offering

training gap analysis, promotion analysis, personality analysis, and most importantly education capability assessment. 4.1 Suppliers: typically reside up the value chain from the producer. Companies can off-load non-core activities to suppliers. Aspiring Minds do not have any suppliers so far as their services are concerned. However, they seek advice for the development of their programs from the eminent professors of the stature from Harvard, MIT Sloan and IITs. Also they work in close tandem with the requirement of the industry. 4.2 Partners: typically supply critical complements to a final product or solution. The company can borrow the assets and competencies of its partners and link them with its own. Aspiring Minds partners with its own clients to provide best of the solutions. 4.3Coalitions:like-minded competitors joined together. So far they have no coalitions. The four core components are linked together by three bridge components 1. Configuration: Intermediates between a companys core strategy and strategic resources. It is the unique way in which competencies, assets and processes are combined and interrelated in support of particular strategy Aspiring Minds have a fine blend of their core strategy and strategic resources. They have in-house research and development for their products which they prepare in consultancy of the industry specific to their requirements. All their products are based on intensive research and are highly result oriented directly inline with their core strategy of providing customer centric value added services. 2. Customer Benefits: Intermediates between the core strategy and the customer interface. The bundle of benefits that is actually being offered to the customer The core strategy of Aspiring Minds is weaved around providing best of the talent to the industry and skill matched profile to candidates. The company has two set of clients. One is a fresh job aspirant, who is provided with comprehensive report of his skills along with SWOT analysis, with the suggestions on how to improve oneself and prepare better for the industry. Also the candidate has the chance to improve his scores, and is made available to the industry. The biggest benefit to the candidate is that he stands on a

platform where his knowledge matters, rather than his academic scores. Another client on the other hand is the industry. The organization provides them a large pool of candidates to choose from, specific to their requirements and also the candidates rated on their eal potential apart form their academic potential. 3. Company Boundaries: Intermediates between a companys strategic resources and its value network. The decisions that have been made about what the firm does and what it contracts out to the value network Aspiring Minds provide the assessment of the candidates on various parameters through their efficient tools developed out of the rigorous research. They help the organizations to shortlist the candidates but categorically do not recruit candidates for the industry. They differ on this aspect from their competitors who provide chosen candidates to the industry. This strategic decision has helped them to sustain, since they are not liable to the failure of a candidate later on (by any chance) because the final hiring decision is taken by the hiring organization itself. However their competitors provides finally selected candidates to the organization where they can be held responsible for the wrong selection explicitly or the hiring organization may develop poor view of the hiring capabilities of the service providers implicitly, which in turn leads to the loss of business in a year or two. Finally there are four factors to consider in determining the wealth potential (how the business concept will generate new wealth) of any business concept: 1. The extent to which the business concept is an EFFICIENT way of delivering customer benefits: The business concept of Aspiring Minds is very efficient well proved by the fact that more and more companies are taking their services. Even IITs are getting their students assessed by them and most recently IGNOU has also tied up with them for the placement activities of their students. 2. The extent to which the business concept is UNIQUE: The business concept of Aspiring Minds is completely unique, one of its kind. The company was even amongst the top six finalist of the NASSCOM Awards for Innovative Business Model. 3. The degree of FIT among the elements of the business concept (all the elements must work together for the same end goal). All the elements of the business concept

works in tandem as the products are designed contingent to the customer needs and are well acclaimed by the clients. 4. The extent to which the business concept exploits PROFIT BOOSTERS that have the potential to generate above-average returns: The business concept here have huge potential to exploit profit boosters as after establishing themselves for recruitment assessment, the company has moved forward to provide services like promotion capability assessment and education capability assessment to the educational institutions to find best and right students to groom. This again is a unique concept which will go long way in earning profits for the organization. Moreover their idea of providing placement services even to the candidates doing simple graduation and post graduation courses will also generate great returns. 4.1 Increasing returns: denotes a fly-wheel effect that tends to perpetuate early success, leaving those who are behind, falling farther behind. To benefit from increasing returns a business concept must harness one of three underlying forces: network effects (the value of a network increases as the number of e.g. members in the network grows), positive feedback effects (using market feedback), learning effects (learning faster than the rivals do). The company has seen success within the first two years of its inception and have left their competitors far behind, as they have been able to tap the clients in the most reputed institutions like IITs. By serving to the institutions of the stature of IIT and being the placement solutions provider to the worlds largest Open University IGNOU, it can be said that the company is going leaps and bounds. They have also achieved the stature of being the only Indian company in Business Weeks list of Most Intriguing Startups globally. 4.2 Competitor lock-out: Through pre-emption (being first), choke point (e.g. a patent or a prime location) controller customer lock-in (e.g. through long-term supply contracts). Aspiring Minds is the first in its kind of services, patented their products and have practically no competitor to them. 4.3Strategic economies: come from building scale advantages (getting bigger), having a business concept with a sharp focus or using economies of scope (sharing things brands, facilities, best practice and so on across business units and countries). The company has tremendous growth potential and is growing exponentially. What started up

as a small business unit providing placement services to the institution in Delhi and around is now operating at pan India level. 4.4 Strategic Flexibility: comes from portfolio breadth (having a broad offering of products, businesses etc.), operating agility (the companys ability to refocus its operations) and lower breakeven (a business concept with a low breakeven point is more flexible, both financially and strategically, than the one with a higher breakeven point). The company has expanded their portfolio by adding products like assessment services to simple graduates, personality testing based on local norms, promotion assessment test, education assessment test, talent mapping, skill gap analysis to name a few. Some Achievements of Aspiring Minds One of the top six finalists in NASSCOM Awards for Innovative Business Recruitment services provider to worlds largest university IGNOU Only Indian company in Business Weeks list of Most Intriguing Startups Praised for offering concrete demonstration of value of assessments in leveling Models.

globally. the playing field of talent at World Economic Forum 2011 meetings held in China around 'Creating 21st century workforce' a number of prominent political, business and education leaders provided their views and also on 'How can today's education system meet tomorrow's need?'. The people of the stature of Bill Clinton (42nd President of America) and Prime Minister of Kenya were part of the meeting. They are cited by the first daily French financial newspaper Les Echos. The researches conducted by them are cited at many platforms like CNBC, One of the UK's leading business magazines Outsource features the view of The Business Enterprises magazine in its cover story on employability and Business Standard echoes the Aspiring Minds' study on employability

Business Standard, Financial Express, Economic Times etc. Himanshu Aggarwal, Director Aspiring Minds. campus, features Aspiring Minds.

'Transition' tests like AMCAT help grads glide into world of work: Economics Aspiring Minds founders Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal got nominated for

Times Business world Brightest Young Entrepreneurs. It is now among top 15 Indian companies which are 2-5 years old. Conclusion To sustain and excel in present day business world, it is not only entrepreneurship or strategy alone will work. Strategic Entrepreneurship is the call of the day to achieve business excellence. There have been much written about strategic entrepreneurship as a concept and one or two models are also developed. However, the practical evidences of strategic entrepreneurship are missing in the literature and also the Lehtonens Model is also not emphasized which provides a comprehensive framework of strategic entrepreneurship. In the present study this model is applied to an organization Aspiring Minds to understand how the organization has achieved business excellence through strategic entrepreneurship. The Aspiring Minds has tremendous wealth potential because they have a business idea which is unique, very efficient, with high degree of fit and profit boosters. This can be analyzed from the fact that the company was one of the finalists for NASSCOM Awards for Innovative Business Models. Their achievement to provide recruitment solutions to the worlds largest university IGNOU. Praised at World Economic Forum 2011 meetings held in China. The people of the stature of Bill Clinton (42nd President of America) and Prime Minister of Kenya were part of the meeting. They are cited by the first daily French financial newspaper Les Echos. They started with four employees in 2008 and today they are more than 130. The business has grown from lacs to somewhere around 30-35 crores. The researches conducted by them are cited at many platforms like CNBC, Business Standard, Financial Express, Economic Times etc. This is just a beginning for the organization. They have came up with the employability tests for MBAs, graduates and with the innovative products like assessment for education to help institutions to find right people to teach and groom. Last but not the least Aspiring Minds founders Himanshu and Varun Aggarwal got nominated for Businessworld Brightest Young Entrepreneurs. It is now among top 15 Indian

companies which are 2-5 years old. Businessworld says that Aspiring Minds's business idea now in its infancy can take the world by storm tomorrow. (http://www.aspiringminds.in/news.html)

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